[7] These Greeks were seven sailors, convicted of piracy by a British naval court, and were sentenced to transportation to New South Wales.

The first known free Greek migrant to Australia was Katerina Georgia Plessos (1809–1907),[8] who arrived in Sydney with her husband Major James Crummer in 1835.

[9] The first wave of free Hellenic migrants commenced in the 1850s, and continued through the end of the 19th century, prompted in part by the recent discovery of gold in the country.

[10] From the last decade of the 19th century until World War I, the number of Greeks immigrating to Australia increased steadily and Hellenic communities were reasonably well established in Melbourne and Sydney at this time.

[14] By comparison, the Greek Cypriot community in Australia doubled following the Invasion of Cyprus by Turkey following a campaign of ethnic cleansing in 1974.

[15] As the economic crisis in Greece grew, the opportunities for temporary resident Greek Australians abroad were limited.

In the early 2010s, there was an increase of Greek immigration flows to Australia due to unemployment, among other issues, because of the economic crisis in Greece.

Greek is the seventh most commonly spoken language in Australia after English, Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Italian.

In South Australia, the local Greek community published a short-lived newspaper called Okeanis (Oceania), around 1914 before it moved to Sydney.

[23] In 1935 and 1936 a third newspaper, Pharos (Lighthouse), was published, and a number of short-lived titles were issued in the late 1960s, with the longest of these being Tachydromos (Mailman), founded in September 1968.

[22] In 1957, Hellenic/Greek language newspaper Neos Kosmos was founded by Dimitri Gogos, Bill Stefanou and Alekos Doukas, the latter also being an exceptionally well known author.

Since 1994, a publication called Paroikiako Vema (Steps in the adopted Country) and printed in Renmark, has served the Greek community in rural South Australia.